


You Are Not Trivial

by phanimist



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Ghosts, M/M, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 06:37:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7746973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phanimist/pseuds/phanimist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>dan being a ghost doesn’t once hinder the friendship between him and phil. the two are constantly there for each other, despite their various differences in problems, and they never let the concepts of what’s ‘real’ and what isn’t define them and the relationship they have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Are Not Trivial

**Author's Note:**

> hi hello my dudes this has been in my back pocket for a while now. like a small pocket kitten or something. just nestled away in the crevices of a pocket. yaknow? anyways, pocket kittens aside, i have written yet another fic. that’s like, four this week. who even am i anymore? hope you like this little platonic fluffy thing i conjured up. lemme know!

Phil had never been terribly afraid of ghosts. From what he’d heard they could fuck some shit up, but he’d never witnessed anything at fault with them personally. From his experience, ghosts were totally friendly. They were loving and caring, and they acted like just about any sensible person should. Well, it should be noted that Phil had only had one experience with a ghost. And that ‘experience’, so to say, went by the name of Dan.

When Phil had moved into his new apartment after finishing up at university, he had almost immediately started to notice strange things happening around the house. At first it was things like the floorboards creaking, or the drop of a spoon at 3am in the kitchen. Things progressed to Phil’s sweater magically disappearing off of his bedroom floor after he had briefly looked away, to doors and cupboards opening and closing on their own. Phil was suspicious to say the least, but it was not soon after that Dan accidentally revealed himself.

Phil had been coming home from the shop, opening his door to see a boy about his height standing in his entryway, looking like he’d been caught with hands in the cookie jar. The boy had chestnut eyes, brown hair, and he was, in fact, wearing the sweater Phil had lost a few weeks ago after swearing it was on his bedroom floor.

Phil remembers yelling at Dan for breaking into his house, remembers backing Dan into the far wall of the hallway with his angry shouting, threatening to call the cops for a trespassing violation. He also remember feeling scared, looking into Dan’s similar scared expression.

The guilt of yelling at Dan hadn’t dissipated, despite how long they’d been friends now. Dan knew it was a surprise for Phil to find someone else in his apartment, even if that someone else wasn’t exactly real, but no matter how many times he insisted that Phil wasn’t at fault, Phil still felt bad.

Phil still remembers the morning after his first encounter with Dan vividly. He’d woken up hoping it was a dream, but looking back he’s glad that it wasn’t.

“Good morning,” Dan had greeted cautiously, Phil walking into the kitchen rubbing his tired eyes despite the frantic brain.

“Hi,” Phil had replied somewhat tentatively. _So it hadn’t been a dream._

“Sleep well?” Dan asked, worry clouding every part of his composure. He had hated that Phil looked so beaten down because of him. Phil had given a half smile, trying not to stare at Dan like he had yesterday. He shrugged.

“Sorta.”

“I’m sorry,” Dan replied. Phil shot him a look. He’d told Dan off multiple times for apologizing repeatedly, as he wasn’t to blame for the ordeal.

“It’s not your fault.”

“It kinda is,” Dan laughed, but shrugged. Phil sighed as he poured his cereal and sat down at the table, looking back up at Dan. Dan hopped up onto the counter where he sat, looking back at Phil.

“Can anyone else see you?” Phil asked curiously, shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. He was more than curious about the whole concept of being a ghost, but was wary about asking too many questions all at once. Dan nodded.

“Yeah, when I choose to use my physical form. I can choose to be invisible, too. That’s why you never saw me.” Dan supplied, twiddling his fingers. “Did you hear about the guy who used to live here though?” Dan asked. Phil shook his head no. “He moved out when I accidentally popped into the bathroom as he was getting out of the shower. Scared him shitless.” Dan laughed at the memory. Phil had to smile as well.

“At least you’ve yet to toilet-jumpscare me,” Phil replied.

“‘Yet’ is the keyword.” Dan smirked. Phil rolled his eyes.

“I could still throw salt at you.”

“You won’t.”

Even though their first conversations, Phil was quickly showing signs of warming up to Dan. Dan evidently didn’t mean any harm, as he would have hurt Phil long ago, and he seemed genuinely nice. Phil quickly learned that he and Dan also had the same interests, and that Dan was beyond excited by this fact. On the days when Phil would leave for work, Dan always had some way to pass the time, whether that be by watching TV, playing a video game, or reading a book. He was usually good at putting things back, but sometimes he’d forgotten. Now that Phil knew he was there, however, he didn’t have to act like he was tiptoeing around. A shred of hope had flickered in Dan’s chest, and at the time he had shoved it down. He really wanted to become Phil’s friend, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up.

Nowadays, he and Phil were closer than he could have ever hoped for.

“I’m home!” Phil called as he came back from work, tucking his shoes away on the mat.

“In the lounge!” Dan called back. Phil moved to join him. Dan was sitting in the middle of the couch, TV showing an old episode of an anime they’d been watching together as of late. He paused it to look over at Phil. “How was work?”

“Uneventful.” Phil replied, sitting next to Dan and dropping a head onto the ghost’s shoulder.

“An uneventful day talking to other human beings? I can’t imagine.” Dan joked. Phil laughed.

“Sorry.” He replied, having momentarily forgotten that Dan hadn’t really interacted with anyone besides him in what was probably years. Dan shook his head in dismissal. Phil turned his head to the TV. “D’ya do this all day?” He gestured to the anime. Dan shrugged.

“Mostly,” Dan admitted

“You know you can act like you live here too, right? You don’t have to act like you’re wandering a minefield.” Phil reminded, poking at Dan’s dimple. Dan smiled fondly. Phil always felt bad for Dan in this way. Some days, he’d go to work for hours and would come back to find Dan doing something as boring as sitting all lonely at the table, spinning a spoon in circles. Phil had always told Dan that he could cook, watch, or play around with anything that he’d like, but Dan was still cautious. He wasn’t taking Phil’s friendship for granted, and didn’t want to fuck it up.

“I just don’t want to break anything,” Dan sighed. “I’m probably the clumsiest person literally ever but I haven’t broken anythi-… Actually that’s a lie. I broke a vase of flowers once. Way back before you knew about me.” Phil laughed.

“So _that’s_ how that broke,” He mused. Dan smiled.

“Sorry.”

“I know, it’s fine.”

Dan was perfectly content. He enjoyed ‘living’ alongside Phil. In fact, interacting with Phil made him feel like he was quite literally living, a feeling he hadn’t ever been able to fully grasp since his death.

Phil always felt bad about leaving Dan alone all the time, despite how many times Dan insisted that he’d been doing it for decades without someone like Phil to accompany him.

“You should come out to lunch and meet my friends sometime,” Phil suggested. They were somewhat cuddled up on the couch, an episode of British Bake-off on the TV. Dan shrugged next to him.

“They’d probably be able to tell I wasn’t real.” Dan dismissed. Phil frowned.

“You are real,” He insisted with a nudge to Dan’s shoulder. “And they’d probably be really happy to meet you.”

“I go transparent around the edges sometimes if I stay in physical form for too long. And what if I disappear mid meal? Then what?” Dan sighed. “I don’t think it would be smart.”

Phil sighed too. He wanted to help Dan, make things more exciting. Give him what he couldn’t get on his own.

Dan was nervous about doing anything in public. Once, Phil had managed to get Dan out to the park to walk around, the ghost nearly having an anxiety attack in just the main foyer. Halfway through their walk in the park, Dan had pulled at Phil’s arm.

“I’m going translucent around the edges.” Dan had mumbled, curling further towards Phil as if he could hide. “Someone’s going to notice.”

“And do what?” Phil replied. Dan sighed, but didn’t move from where he had curled into Phil’s side. Phil wrapped an arm around him, and led him off of the park path to a tree where they could both hide in the shadows for a minute or two.

“Dan, you’re fine.”

“I’m-”

“Don’t apologize,” Phil laughed.

“Are you okay if I.. If I disappear?” Dan asked warily. Phil could see the lines of nerves etched into his features, and his heart ached. “I just don’t want anybody to see me and have you feel repercussions for any reason. After everything you’ve done-”

“You can go invisible if you want, of course, but I’m not worried about me.” Phil insisted, pulling Dan into a tight and reassuring hug.

“I know,” Dan smiled as he paled, fading away without removing himself from Phil’s embrace. Phil could still feel him holding his hand as they walked silently home, Dan keeping the contact so that Phil would know he was there, and Phil appreciating the grip as he knew that Dan would return home safely with him.

Phil had also offered to let Dan trail him invisibly at work one day just to get out of the house, but Dan declined. He was too worried about creeping Phil or anybody out. Phil had also asked if Dan could go outside and explore, but his memory was apparently too non-committal, and he’d probably forget his way home without Phil or another tether. Ghosts that strayed too far from their ‘home’ without reminders that they lived there were often wiped of memory and consciousness, becoming subject to impulse. This ended up being why some ghosts liked to slam doors and windows for fun in order to scare people. Dan didn’t want to be one of them. Nonetheless, Phil tried to make Dan’s life as interesting as possible, even if that meant just doing things around the house with him.

They were constantly at each other’s sides at home, constantly laughing and joking around with each other, and they were constantly cuddly. Phil had quite quickly found that Dan was low on validation, and even the simplest forms of it made him forever grateful. The small things like having a conversation, to giving Dan a hug when he was acting withdrawn were enough to turn the ghost’s mood around. Dan was constantly afraid that him being ‘dead’, so to say, would one day cause Phil to run away, but Phil did everything in his power to convince him otherwise. He was aware of the role he played in Dan’s life, and even more aware of the role the ghost played in his. He wasn’t going to throw it away.

He’d happily listen to Dan’s rambling opinions and thoughts into the late hours of the night, wishing he had the ghost’s ability to go longer without rest. He enjoyed hearing Dan ramble on excitedly about things. It was as if every aspect of the world interested him. Once, Dan had gotten excited about the colour blue, and had talked about it to Phil, who had avidly listened, for at least five minutes. Wanting to say something and being able to say it to another human who would respond was something Dan loved having back.

Dan would also listen to Phil complain about work whenever he needed to, not once playing the guilt card by mentioning his lack of ability to do something with his ‘life’. He genuinely cared about Phil’s living problems, and Phil cared about his not-so-living ones too.

Phil could infer that Dan never been too confident, even when alive. He’d never actually asked about Dan’s death either, nor his past life out of fear that it would upset him. The last thing Phil wanted to do was burden Dan further, and the least he could do was try to make Dan happy, and comfort the ghost when he needed it.

There were frequently nights where Dan would creep into Phil’s room late into the light, paler than usual after going half transparent. Phil would automatically lift the covers, welcoming Dan and wordlessly telling him that he was here to listen. Phil would wrap his arms around the ghost, urging him back to full physical form, letting the silence sit until Dan spoke. Eventually, he always did.

“I don’t know whether or not I even exist,” Dan would whisper, Phil threading his fingers through the brunette’s hair. “I don’t know if I’m more than you, or less than you, or just nothing at all.”

“You’re not nothing,” Phil whispered, pulling Dan closer. “Anything but that.”

“But I’m not real, yet I’m here. I’m here with you, and you’re here with me, and I don’t know if you’re real either. I don’t know if this house is real, or if the sky is real, or if I’ve dreamt up all the people who have ever seen me as a way of coping with the void of loneliness. I don’t know..” Dan would trail off, and Phil would let the silence grow, pulling Dan closer. It wasn’t his place to offer advice, not that he had any to give. He didn’t, and never would be able to fully understand the things Dan felt. Plus, the living’s opinions were no more important than Dan’s.

Phil would just hug him close until Dan’s breaths evened out as he fell asleep. Phil knew that Dan didn’t technically breathe, but old habits die hard. Quite literally, he joked to himself, smiling into Dan’s hair. The smile faded as he felt his own eyes grow lidded with sleep.

Dan was here with him, and whether he was living or not, Phil was happy. Dan cared about him, and he cared about Dan, and whether Dan walked through walls or held a door for him, cooked him a meal or was able to disappear entirely, he was still Dan, and Phil still loved him.

“You’re not nothing.” Phil whispered again into the quiet night air, focusing solely on the rise and fall of Dan’s chest as he would finally succumb to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> heyheyhey hope you have a good daydayday :) i also hope that you liked this little thing. i had fun writing it. i was initially gonna title the fic ‘who ya gonna call?’ but then i decided to refrain from doing so.
> 
> sidenote: if you do know what the title ‘you are not trivial’ is in reference to *cough* malec *cough* then highfives to you, my friend.


End file.
